- AxiomSL has convened an industry-wide initiative to define an open data structure (a "Taxonomy") which will streamline financial institutions' (FIs) compliance efforts for the revised MAS 610/1003[1] reporting mandate.

- AxiomSL in partnership with nine banks, PwC and BR-AG, will define the Taxonomy during the first quarter of 2018, and following the issuance of the final notice by the MAS, the Taxonomy will be updated and then made available to all MAS 610 reporting FI's.

- The MAS 610 open taxonomy will allow Financial Institutions to better structure and automate regulatory reporting regardless of the reporting technology in use. AxiomSL will leverage the Taxonomy as part of its on-premise and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

SINGAPORE, HONG KONG and SYDNEY, Feb. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AxiomSL, the global leader in regulatory reporting, data and risk management solutions, has convened a diverse industry group to define an open data taxonomy to simplify and streamline compliance reporting for the revised Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) 610 reporting mandate. AxiomSL is partnering with two D-SIBs (Domestic Systemically Important Authorized Institutions) and seven international banks including four G-SIBs (Global Systemically Important Banks), PwC Singapore and BR-AG in this unprecedented industry-led initiative. By mid this year, the Taxonomy for the revised MAS 610 will be complete and made available to all Financial Institutions (FIs) in Singapore. AxiomSL has seen overwhelming interest in this initiative from the FIs in Singapore to date.

Aligned with the overarching themes taking centerstage in 2017's Singapore FinTech Festival, this industry-led initiative aims to take an innovative and collaborative approach to define regulatory data relationships. Through cross-collaboration by industry experts, this initiative aims to reduce reporting complexities and the compliance burden facing FIs at present. In addition to standardizing interpretations of the MAS requirements, the Taxonomy will allow for increased automation of testing and change management as well as drive higher quality of data and data governance.

The MAS 610 reporting guidelines were last updated ten years ago and the new MAS 610 will see a significant increase in the granularity and frequency of reporting[2]. The taxonomy approach will reframe the 340,000 individual data points required in the revised MAS 610 report (substantial increase from the 4,000+ data points required today) into a series of data relationships that can be applied and reused consistently across all the proposed submissions.

PwC will provide advisory services and act as the project management office for this initiative. BR-AG, a data consulting firm that has a proven track record with central banks and regulatory authorities globally, will draft the data model and XBRL taxonomy.

Peter Tierney, CEO Asia-Pacific, AxiomSL said, "We have watched the evolution of structured data exchange in other regulatory contexts and jurisdictions around the world. The benefits in terms of automation and data quality are clear, both for the FIs and the regulators. The upcoming MAS 610 revision provides a unique opportunity to leverage these developments and with the combination of our FI partners, PwC and BR-AG, we are confident we can combine global best practice with specific Singapore requirements. We feel strongly that the resulting Taxonomy be open and available to all reporting FI's to encourage adoption and further innovation."

Chris Matten, Partner at PwC said "We are pleased to partner with AxiomSL, BR-AG and the FIs to take this initiative forward in Singapore. As an advisor, we will be supporting this initiative through review and coordination among external parties. It is promising to see such an initiative being carried out which brings together major players within the industry, all working towards a common goal."

Michal Piechocki, CEO, BR-AG said "Having seen the incalculable benefits of taxonomy-based reporting, we are glad to be a part of the initiative taken by AxiomSL and its partners in Singapore. Data modelling and taxonomy-based approach, specifically using XBRL, has proven effective especially in the context of changing financial environments and new reporting mandates. We have seen its merits firsthand in similar projects developed by BR-AG with the data modelling methodology (Data Point Model) at, for example the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) or the European Banking Authority (EBA). The MAS 610 project embodies all the value-adding aspects represented by the combined data modelling and open taxonomy building approach, and it has potential replication opportunities across jurisdictions around the world. This approach presents the possibility to engineer automation into regulation in the near future."

In addition to delivering MAS 610 solutions through on-premise deployment, AxiomSL will also offer its' new MAS 610 solution through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery option. SaaS is a cloud-based approach that will help banks alleviate the burden of procur­ing and operating the complex, hardware and soft­ware infrastructure required for reporting. By managing and maintaining the infrastructure required for compliance, AxiomSL's SaaS solution will enable banks to benefit from enhanced economies of scale, information consistency and operational transparency.

[1] MAS Notice 610 covers financial and statistical reporting for banks in Singapore, except for merchant banks, which are covered by MAS Notice 1003. As the two Notices as broadly the same, they are referred to collectively as MAS 610 herein

AxiomSL, the global leader in regulatory reporting, data and risk management solutions was established more than 25 years ago, with offices worldwide. AxiomSL's unique enterprise data management (EDM) platform empowers firms to address data governance and risk aggregation while delivering the analytics, workflow automation, validation, audit functionality and reporting required by multiple stakeholders across global and local regulations.

The AxiomSL's collaborative platform, known for its robustness, adaptability and transparency, imposes no constraints on where the data is located and enables financial firms to avoid duplication and double storage. It seamlessly integrates clients' source data from disparate systems and enriches and validates the data, and runs it through risk and regulatory calculations to produce both internal and external reports. The platform supports disclosures in multiple formats, including XBRL. The unparalleled transparency offered by the high-performance platform gives users the ability to drill down on their data to any level of granularity.

AxiomSL was awarded "Reporting Product of the Year" at the Asia Capital Markets Awards 2017 as well as "Best Implementation at a Sell-side Firm" for the second year running for the 2017 Sell-side Technology Awards and recently received the RegTech Awards for "Most Innovative Use of a Vendor Solution to Address a Dodd-Frank Requirement. AxiomSL was highlighted as a 'Category Leader' by Chartis Research in its 2017 Sell-side Risk Management Technology report. It was also awarded by The Asian Banker for "Best Compliance Risk Technology Implementation of the Year" in 2016. The company's work has also been recognized through a number of other accolades, including Waters Rankings' Best Reporting System Provider, Best Reporting Initiative in the American Financial Technology Awards and in the Customer Satisfaction section of the Chartis RiskTech100 rankings. www.axiomsl.com

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About Business Reporting-Advisory Group

The mission of Business Reporting - Advisory Group (BR-AG) is to build trusted, efficient and stable regulatory data ecosystems by collaborating with regulatory and supervisory authorities and financial institutions in the process of raising compliance levels and digitization of data services. BR-AG applies state of the art technology to proactively address some of the core issues in the financial data field, including lowering the reporting burden, increasing public trust towards business data and services and tackling data sharing constraints in financial environments.

To that end, BR-AG works for and collaborates with financial institutions, regulatory and public sector's organizations, fintech companies as well as reporting entities on both national and cross-national levels. In over 12 years, BR-AG has delivered more than 60 projects globally, including projects for the European Union bodies as well as central banks, treasuries, securities commissions, regulators, trade registers and banks in Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, North and South America.